Lockyer Asked to Study Claim of O.J. Lying

The sister of murder victim Nicole Brown Simpson asked California’s attorney general Monday to investigate O.J. Simpson for perjury, alleging that he lied under oath when he testified that he never struck his ex-wife.

Denise Brown, the sister, and her lawyer said they were turning to Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer for help because Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti had failed to act in the nearly three years since Simpson’s testimony.

“At the civil trial O.J. Simpson swore under oath to tell the truth and nothing but the truth and denied ever hitting my sister, Nicole,” Brown said. “Why didn’t Mr. Garcetti investigate him for perjury?”

A spokeswoman for Garcetti was not immediately available for comment. Lawyers for Simpson also could not be reached.

Simpson was acquitted by a criminal court jury of the June 12, 1994, murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. In 1997, though, a civil court jury found him liable for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to relatives of the victims.

During the civil trial Simpson, who in 1990 pleaded no contest to spousal abuse charges, testified that he never hit, kicked or slapped his ex-wife.

“I thought in our country that when we as citizens swear under oath to tell the truth, that we will be held accountable if we lie,” said Brown, who is chief executive of the Nicole Brown Charitable Foundation in Dana Point.

“Lying under oath is called perjury, and perjury is a crime,” she said. “If people can get up on the stand and lie, then what kind of system do we have?”

Brown and her lawyer, Gloria Allred, ended their news conference in Los Angeles by presenting a letter to a member of Lockyer’s staff asking for an investigation of Simpson.

Brown and Allred said they were calling for the investigation now because the three-year statute of limitations on perjury has almost expired; Simpson testified in November 1996.